Archive for December, 2009

A reflection about what the theft of the Malaysian Royal Military Air Force (RMAF) symbolizes of our present political establishment.

A lot of us expressed disbelief that a RMAF jet fighter engines worth RM 50 million each were stolen along with other parts from the aircraft. The total cost is well over RM 100 million in terms of loss. Our government has not explained to us the opportunity cost of those aircrafts.

But our disbelief is not that there is crime in our country. It is not even that the theft is very likely an inside job. We know that most thefts in Malaysia on a grand national project scale are inside jobs. Our disbelief is that the present government is so completely corrupt and incompetent as to cause a breach of national security and endanger all of us.
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Those jet fighter engines are symbolic of our dynamism, growth and discipline. It is therefore fitting that this Barisan National led government watched over its theft, if not virtually participated in it as a result of its policies and morality. They weakened our national dynamism with their mind numbing, fool elevating constant flip-flopping of our educational and national policies. They drive out our best and brightest or make them suffer under the weight of fools. They killed our national growth with their wanton greed which the theft symbolizes. Those in the power elite have taken what is not theirs. They have twisted policies to serve them and their insatiable greed. And we have no sense of governmental and national discipline, in terms of far-reaching policies for the betterment of our country and the good of our people. The government we have enthroned now are completely and utterly self-serving, more so when they claim they are serving our interests.

More than two years after two F5-E fighter jet engines were stolen and a year after the theft was discovered, police investigators are finally looking for documents to provide clues as to how the equipment could have been taken out of the country.

In a case that has become a major embarrassment for Malaysia and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was Defence Minister at the times the engines were stolen, investigators have lingered over the case since the Royal Malaysian Air Force first lodged a report last August.

But since the thefts were publicly revealed recently, the authorities have come under pressure to explain why the case has taken so long to investigate and to deny claims of a cover up.
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Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has described the embarrassing theft of two F-5E jet engines as a “serious matter”.

Which is why his chambers is going all-out to solve the case as “the public needs to know” — a full six months after the police investigation papers landed in his office.

“It is a serious matter. To my knowledge, it is two engines, and what makes matters worse is that the loss was discovered about a year later. I need a full investigation. I think the public deserves to know,” Bernama quoted Gani as saying in New Delhi yesterday.

Is the AG serious? For his statement is incredible considering his chambers haven’t appeared to have taken action on the case two years after the treacherous theft in 2007.

And now that the case has become public, he is trying to convince Malaysians that this is a “serious matter” and no effort will be spared.

Yes it is. Its not shoplifting, is it? Its not a snatch theft or a common burglary which even the police have trouble solving.

But sparing no effort? What has been done since the theft was discovered? Will there be more revelations of other items stolen from the military?
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The Malaysian government faces a fresh corruption crisis after officials admitted that two fighter jet engines had disappeared from an air force base after apparently being illicitly sold by military officers to a South American arms dealer.

Najib Razak, prime minister, said there would be a full inquiry into the thefts, which happened in 2007 and 2008, when he was defence minister. However, opposition parties accused the government of a cover-up.

Lim Kit Siang, parliamentary leader of the opposition Democratic Action party, said the authorities had been “super slow” and alleged the prime minister’s response had painted a “frightening picture of a government of thieves”.

Idris Ahmad of the allied Parti Islam SeMalaysia said “powerful people” had been involved. “We don’t want only the ikan bilis [anchovies] to be arrested while the sharks are allowed to swim freely,” he said.
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The fact that not one but two fighter aircraft engines could go missing from the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s (RMAF) inventory is not just a normal case of theft. It involves national security. And not only must heads roll, those involved must be tried for nothing less than treason.

The government’s response and the manner in which the case has been handled so far have been appalling to say the least. We are now being told that the theft was discovered last May. And a police report was lodged only last August. So what was the Defence Ministry and RMAF doing in those three months? Were they looking under mattresses for the engines?

But yet Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claims there is no cover up. He was then Defence Minister in Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Cabinet. He should have recommended then for the theft to be announced to the public.
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Wain was granted access to the former premier for a series of exhaustive interviews. It may well be the most definitive picture painted of Mahathir to date, and certainly is even-handed. Wain, now a writer in residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, is by no means a Mahathir sycophant. Advance publicity for the book has dwelt on an assertion by Wain that Mahathir may well have wasted or burned up as much as RM100 billion (US$40 billion at earlier exchange rates when the projects were active) on grandiose projects and the corruption that that the projects engendered as he sought to turn Malaysia into an industrialized state. Although some in Malaysia have said the figure is too high, it seems about accurate, considering such ill-advised projects as a national car, the Proton, which still continues to bleed money and cost vastly more in opportunity costs for Malaysian citizens forced to buy any other make at huge markups behind tariff walls. In addition, while Thailand in particular became a regional center for car manufacture and for spares, Malaysia, handicapped by its national car policy, was left out.

Almost at the start of the book, Wain encapsulates the former premier so well that it bears repeating here: Mahathir, he writes, “had an all-consuming desire to turn Malaysia into a modern, industrialized nation commanding worldwide respect. Dr Mahathir’s decision to direct the ruling party into business in a major way while the government practiced affirmative action, changed the nature of the party and accelerated the spread of corruption. One manifestation was the eruption of successive financial scandals, massive by any standards, which nevertheless left Dr Mahathir unfazed and unapologetic.”

That pretty much was the story of Malaysia for the 22 years that Mahathir was in charge.
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